Getting Involved

“We are knit together as a body in a strict and sacred bond and covenant, by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves straightly tied to all care of each others good, and of the whole.”
--John Robinson, 1620

The church has not changed all that much, either. Oh, sure, in the case of Unitarian Universalism, the content has changed a bit from the time of our Puritan forebears. And some things, such as administration and finances, have become a lot more complicated. But the church as an institution is pretty much the same. You don’t have to read a lot of church history to recognize that this is true.

This, too, is either good or bad, depending on how you choose to look at it. It is good, in that we know, or should know by now, the nature of the beast, and we can or should learn from past mistakes. It is bad, because we still need to be reminded how we are supposed to treat one another.

Building community has never been easy, and the attempt fails just about as often as it succeeds. But never discount the value of the effort! What is most remarkable about this church, perhaps, is that it has been in continuous operation since 1725, and even longer, 1636, if you include its roots in the First Parish of Newbury. That’s a long time to be working out the beloved community, never mind that the experiment has never been completely successful. We’re still here, and that is a kind of miracle in and of itself!

That we are still here is due, we are reminded, to the labors of generations of members and friends of the First Religious Society in Newburyport. Fortunately for us, the inheritors, there have always been some dedicated folks who thought that this church was worth their time, trouble, and money. We can only conjecture, based on our own experience here, as to why they got involved. The fact is, they did.

This morning I want us to think about what it means to “get involved” in a church. In part, I suspect people become involved because, down through the years, human beings have always been confronted with the fact of their own mortality. They have turned to religion as a way of coming to terms with this reality; if not to have their questions answered, then at least to find some rest in them. But that can hardly be all, or this would be a very morbid institution indeed.

Some come, I suspect, because they are looking for God, or at least for some reality beyond themselves and their own limited and self-limiting lives. I like to think that some of us have even found here what they were looking for.

I think they also get involved because they are looking to find a sense of community with like-minded people. They want to share their joys as well as their sorrows with others. They want to take time to focus on what was most important in their lives.

And, not to be forgotten, they want to be of service. They want to do something for others, and perhaps to make some small difference in the world in which they live. Too often, nowadays, I think that this reason for involvement gets lost in our desire to get our own needs met, and I would challenge us to reconsider the importance of service, not only to others, but for ourselves, for the rewards of service are great.

I guess that you could say that I have been deeply involved in the church for quite a long time,--though not nearly as long as some of you. Why did I first get involved? I think at first that I was drawn to the church because of the mystery of it all. I was curious about what it all might mean--life, death, and in-between, and thereafter--and I wanted to explore the great religious questions: the question of God, the question of the meaning of life, the question of my own mortality and the mortality of those of I love. In my younger days I wanted to change the world, and though I have grown more cynical about that possibility with the passing years, I would say that it is still a large incentive for my getting involved in the work of the church. I wanted to serve other people in some meaningful way, and saw the pastoral aspect of the church’s work as extremely important in a world where connections are being stretched and broken even as the world becomes a smaller pl! ace. Perhaps, I thought, I can help one or two people along the way.

I thought very little, at first, about the institutional “needs” of the church, even during Divinity School. I’m not sure I even knew what that meant, in terms of time, and participation, and money. Now that I have been in the ministry for almost nineteen years, I realize how very important those institutional needs are to meeting the other needs that I have mentioned. That is to say, the mundane is terribly important to the sacred and the spiritual. We’re not in heaven yet. Buildings and staff and programs are essential to fulfilling the church’s role in the world. Some of us wish that it were otherwise--and I place myself in that camp, sometimes--but it is so.

Now, getting involved means giving not only my wholehearted assent to our particular religious philosophy--our liberal religious philosophy--but also it means giving my time, my money, and my participation in the life of the community that is this church. I think that anyone who takes a close look at our yearly budget can begin to understand why it is so important that we contribute some of our hard-earned cash to this enterprise. So I am not going to dwell on that this morning, even though this is the Sunday when we kick-off our every member canvass.

No, what I want to speak with you about this morning are some of the other implications of “getting involved.” And the first thing that I want to talk about is your participation.

I want you to know that the most important aspect of getting involved is your physical presence. And by that I mean not only your presence in the pews on Sunday morning, but at other events in the life of our church as well. And I’m not just thinking about your participation on committees and boards, or even as canvassers during our yearly fund-raising canvass., though that is important, and even essential. What I’m thinking about your participation in the spiritual work of our church, and in its service to the larger community of which our church is a part I’m thinking of something really quite profound: of knowing, and of being known within our community--as St. Paul says, “face to face.” I really cannot over-emphasize how important this is, or might be.

For I’m thinking of the human connection which exists to both the past and the future in this place. I’m thinking of what happens when people get together and really try to understand each other, to support each other, and, dare I say it, to love each other? I’m thinking, too, of our human connections beyond this church, to people who will never darken its doors but who nevertheless need the resources and skills which we can provide to a troubled and troubling world. I’m thinking about the connections that we can have with people beyond our national borders, as through our Partner Church program, and how these kinds of connections can help us to grow, can inspire us to feel more fulfilled and less bound up in our own, provincial and sometimes trivial, concerns.

I’m thinking about the kind of spiritual work that takes place in human interaction, in what theologian Henry Nelson Wieman called “creative interchange” between human beings. It can only happen if we come together in community, in what John Robinson called a “strict and sacred bond and covenant.”

And I’m not naive about all the ramifications of this kind of participation. It’s very risky. It’s very demanding of our time and our treasure. Like any close relationship, it creates almost as many problems as it solves. This kind of participation leads to complications we didn’t even imagine existed. We will find out that the people who share this place and this space with us are dealing with all sorts of challenges in their lives. We will find out that this institution, which some of us love, faces problems and challenges, too, which have to met by people like us.

The deeper we get in, the more we get involved, the less simple it all becomes. But as those of us who have had close and meaningful relationships know, the rewards are also sometimes greater the deeper we go.

The other thing we will discover, as most of us discover in our other primary relationships, is that these things are never perfect. The Other is never perfect, any more than we are ourselves perfect. I know that I and this church have failed some of you. Your needs have sometimes not been met, and you have probably asked “is it worth it?” And, particularly at pledge time, this question becomes more urgent. Why should I bother to give my hard earned cash to an institution that is not meeting my needs?

The problem, from where I sit, is that unless you are an active participant, unless you are physically present here on a regular basis, I and others probably won’t know what those needs are. Given the size of our congregation, I may not even know who you are ! In addition to around 330 “signed” members of our church, and 150 children registered in our church school, there are an additional 200 or so people on our mailing list, some of whom attend regularly, but many of whom seldom if ever come to a worship service or other event at our church. Yet, at some level, they consider this “their church.” Contrary to rumor, ESP is not one of my better attributes. Unless you tell me, or I hear it through the grapevine, I may not know that you have a problem. Or that you have a joy which you wish to share! Or a complaint, or a compliment.

Finally, I want to speak about what I might call “ultimate involvement.” We may be Unitarian Universalists, and our numbers may include a large number of skeptics and even unbelievers, but to me getting involved in the church means getting involved in the search for ultimate meaning. Yes, you can do this on your own, but I believe there is a different quality to the search if you do it, at least part of the time but on a regular basis, with other people. We need to be tested in our spiritual quest. We also need support in our journey, when the path seems long and winding, or when we fear that we have lost the way.

I think what I am trying to say is that it is desperately important to me that you get involved in what is happening here at the church. The church needs you; but, and you may not fully recognize this fact, you need the church. That’s about as close as I’ll ever get to evangelizing! We all need companionship: people with whom we can break bread, people with whom we might build the beloved community. I know that we are not a perfect community, and believe me I know that I am not a perfect minister. I fail more often than I succeed in doing the kind of work I am talking about here. I mistake you for someone else; I fail to be in touch with you in a crisis; I fail to say thank you often enough; I don’t know that you are in the hospital, or going through a divorce; or whatever your needs happen to be.

Fortunately, though, I am not the church, but only its representative. But in order for the church to be helpful to you in your hour of need, you need to be present, cultivating relationships, and yes, helping to build the beloved community by getting involved in committees, contributing to our financial needs, teaching Sunday School, being a canvasser, taking the initiative to start small interest groups, coming to church events, and getting to know people. That is the only way that the church can fulfill its mission, if I might use that word. Because, as the old hymn reminds us, “The church is not a building . . . the church is you and I.” It will not always succeed, but at least it will have a chance.

The great Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, once wrote that,

The church composed of folk united not by creed and sacraments,
but by deeds of truth and love, has always lived and will live forever.
And whether this church be in numbers little or great, it is nevertheless
the church that never shall perish; the church that firmly unites within
its fold the hearts and minds it serves.

That, at least, is my hope, despite my personal failures and the failures of my church to live up to its highest ideals. Getting involved means putting ourselves on the line for those ideals, so that they might become real in the world, and so that “truth and love” might triumph after all.

As usual, I have failed to say all that is in my heart. Perhaps it enough to say that we need you. We want to get to know you, and we want you to get to know us.

May this church succeed in involving you. May it gain your trust and your loyalty and your love, and ultimately may it gain your service to all that it is and all that it might be. And may it, in turn, give back richly, to all who cross its sacred threshold, whatever their need, or their gift, or their hope. So may it be. Amen.

The Rev. Harold E. Babcock